by: Pepper's Floating Sunglasses Review by Mike Walker

This is a breakdown on a sunglass company's product perfect for the fishing industry that you might not have heard about. I spend countless hours searching the web for companies with products that would crossover to the fishing world. One product I ran across was from a company called Pepper's. They offered floating polarized sunglasses. Once I started looking into the company and their glasses, I saw two lines of their products that I felt separated them from the rest. The two lines, the Speedline and the Sportsman, have 15 styles between them. There are plenty of different frames, colors, and lens choices. Their floating models range from $28-$39.95. By that point I'd seen enough. I knew the next step was to see these in person.

That night my mind kept thinking about the glasses and years past. Thinking back to when I was a kid and lost my first pair of Oakley's in the lake, or when I lost another pair as I fell out of a canoe on a trip down the river. Over my years as being a guide, I've seen several pairs take the plunge. That just lead me back to why haven't floating sunglasses grown over the years? There are very few companies who make floating sunglasses and even fewer companies that don't sacrifice style for floatability. So the next day I contacted them and within a couple days I had several pairs in hand for my review. Upon opening their package and looking through the glasses, I found a favorite really quick. The model was the Cutthroat; the frame had a black to tortoise fade, brown tactical polarized lenses with emerald green mirror. When choosing sunglasses, everybody likes different things, but these are the ones that stood out to me.

Now the real test began: seeing how they feel, how they’re made, how they hold up and how they perform in the water. To start, I wore the glasses from the time the sun came up, ‘til dark. I would still have the glasses resting on top of my head ‘til almost bedtime. I wanted to get the most wear out of them. I treated them pretty rough too - doing everything I could from throwing them on my truck’s dash when I took them off, to dropping them on the concrete and boat. They seemed to take everything in stride. They have an extremely long screw in the hinges to keep them tight and showed no sign of loosening by the hinges. All in all, the construction of these glasses seemed solid.

Now on to one of the most important parts: how do the foam chambers, which allow the glasses to float, feel and perform? Let's start with how they feel. The foam chambers sit almost flush with just a hair difference with the side frame. They seem to have no effect on the feel of the glasses when worn. After one month, the foam still looks good and shows no sign of loosening or damage. As for the foam and its performance in the water, they float. The weight of the lenses and front frames are the heaviest part of the glasses. That makes the front part of the glasses point straight down in the water, leaving the side pieces sticking out just above the top of the water. When I say just above the water, I am talking a couple of centimeters at best. We tested dropping the glasses in the water. We were on a very clear lake in Alabama, so we had no problem locating them. I will say if you were on a dirty water lake with wind, you would need to be real close to find them. In the end it would be nice to have a little more flotation, but they do stick out of the water and in most situations you'll get them back.

Verdict:
If you’re not looking to spend a hundred or two on sunglasses, but still want to get a good product at a great price, look Pepper’s up on the web or give them a call at (800) 998-4786 or visiting their website www.peppersusa.com

 

About the author: Mike Walker is the owner and operator of Fishing 24-7 which is a full service guide company based in Birmingham, AL, specializing in finesse and big bait bass fishing tactics. You can learn more about him and his guide service by visiting fishing24-7guideservice.com